I'm assuming that if Hifumi had been playable she probably would've been given more to do than what we see in her S-Link. She (or someone she knows) probably would've had a Palace at least, and the story section associated with it would be there to help build her up.

I can see why they didn't make her playable though. Her most likely utility to the party would already be covered by Makoto and maybe Futaba by the time she appears.

The biggest issue with Haru (and Ann also, though not nearly as badly) is that once her father's Palace is done, so is basically any further development of her character within the main story, and her S-Link unlocks so late and carries such a savage stat lock that a ton of players probably never saw whatever else she has to offer. It reminds me of the situation with Mitsuru in P3, except Mitsuru was a major story character from the beginning, so they could get away with keeping her off the S-Link table until the end.

I actually liked Haru's skill set and used her in battle a lot. Agreed about the social link, though. With her arriving so late in the story, they should have made her link easy to unlock in a first run, not impossible.

Bier_Engel wrote:I actually liked Haru's skill set and used her in battle a lot.

She definitely packs a punch with all those heavy gun skills and (I think?) light/dark/megido stuff, so she's basically the Naoto of this group. If I had liked her voice more I probably would've put her into the rotation more often.

Sweet! Hopefully I'll have one by the time that comes out in the US. Not interested in much else on the Switch just yet. The Fire Emblem game is a hack and slash, so I lost my interest real fast when I found that out.

I finished this game a couple days ago (124 hours, hoo) and boy I have feelings ALSO A LOT OF UNMARKED SPOILERS

1. I think I like Akechi more than a lot of y'all. When you first meet him, I caught onto the fact that he could understand Morgana, so it didn't surprise me that he would betray you, but he was endearing enough in this weird way that I thought maybe they were just trying to mislead me. ... I didn't think he would try to murder you, though. That was a wild ride.

2. I jokingly called Igor "Zero" for most of the game due to the voice acting and then laughed really hard when he turned out to be the antagonist.

4. Besides Mishima being all CMON BROS PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER FOR THE PHANTOM THIEVES!!!, I'm glad they kept the ALL YOUR FRIENDS ARE THINKING ABOUT YOU AND GIVING YOU THEIR POWER shit to a minimum. They did too much of that in P3 and P4.

5. If you execute a Mara for fusion, do they basically just circumcise him?

It feels like this game had a lot of similar themes to Persona 2 (daddy issues, two people getting picked out by Thors to get REALLY FUCKED WITH, antagonists playing a very long game, the dangers of groupthink) and I am glad that they didn't play coy with their narratives.

Makoto was my waifu, but Jun Yusuke is my real boyfriendo. Come on, you can ask if you should pose nude for his art and he enthusiastically says yes. My gaydar is off the charts.

Bluti really digs Akechi. I actually really liked pre-twist Akechi. Yeah, he was a Lawful Stupid dork, but that was kind of fun. The whole "daddy issues, let's forgive him despite his body count, we can be a team" left me cold as a story device. I didn't even get any catharsis from him dying. I was just like "okay, bye I guess".

I did not peg him as the traitor as (I think I said this before), I saw so much Mishima hate before I played the game, I assumed he would be the "inside man" who betrayed you. He's not in the party, so it'd be minimal disruption, and he's "in" but not a Phantom Thief, so he has his whiny-ass confidant link stuff as motivation.

The Igor stuff was good fun. Little clues like "Igor" having basically nothing to do with ANYTHING in the Velvet Room at all were quite clever. The "Do You Believe in the Phantom Thieves" poll somehow getting to 100% and practically exploding like a cartoon thermometer at the end was so cheesy but I popped for it anyway.

In retrospect they probably could've dropped a few more red herrings to better distract from Akechi. Brief flashes of dissent from Morgana and Ryuji were there, plus the Mishima thing, but not usually very strong, and probably not intended for that purpose.

goddamnit I had a perfect Texts From Last Night thing for this but now I can't find it

4. Besides Mishima being all CMON BROS PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER FOR THE PHANTOM THIEVES!!!, I'm glad they kept the ALL YOUR FRIENDS ARE THINKING ABOUT YOU AND GIVING YOU THEIR POWER shit to a minimum. They did too much of that in P3 and P4.

Yeah. I'm also willing to cut Persona games a little slack on this point 'cause nothing they do like this will ever compare to Doctor Who's various painful interpretations.

oh look he was a gnome thing in a cage but now he got his body back because all the people of earth loved him so much yaaay

It feels like this game had a lot of similar themes to Persona 2 (daddy issues, two people getting picked out by Thors to get REALLY FUCKED WITH, antagonists playing a very long game, the dangers of groupthink) and I am glad that they didn't play coy with their narratives.

That's pretty much how I saw it as well. A lot of the stuff with Shido at the end was especially well done, particularly the apathy from the public, even after he confesses everything, was... quite a thing, considering our current batshit political environment and news cycle, which is filled with the kind of stories that would've shut everything down decades ago but barely make any impact today.

P5's emphasis on perspective and cognition and reality is probably also the closest the series has got to playing around with P2's rumours again. It's totally possible the same metaphysical forces allowed both scenarios to exist, regardless of the specific people involved, kinda like how everything we saw in P4's TV world was probably a Palace.

John Layfield wrote:The "Do You Believe in the Phantom Thieves" poll somehow getting to 100% and practically exploding like a cartoon thermometer at the end was so cheesy but I popped for it anyway.

I think I started humming the theme to Chariots of Fire while that was happening. Good thing Mishima picked a good provider so the site didn't accidentally get DDOS'd while everyone is on their smartphones like "it's raining blood and some dudes in cosplay are fighting this thing the size of a skyscraper, I GUESS I believe in the Phantom Thieves"

Re: Akechi, I can understand how the team was all like "yeah, join us bro, lets fuck Shido's skull together" since they were all a semi dysfunctional bunch who banded together based on their shared histories of getting booted in the head by "shitty adults" (sidenote: I really wish the localization team had picked a few more adjectives.) On the other hand, even Haru was ready to forgive him after he knocked her dad? Bwaaaa?

In a weird sort of way I feel like Fake Igor and Shido screwed him a lot more than Nyarlathotep ever screwed Jun. That kid really needed a Big Brother or something.

cybersix wrote:On the other hand, even Haru was ready to forgive him after he knocked her dad? Bwaaaa?

I have mixed feelings on this. Yes, her dad was her last remaining family member and she still loved him, but also, he was a sack of shit that just wanted to marry her off for his own gain and apparently didn't even think about her/love her enough to have a cognition of her in his palace (and Morgana's response to her question about that says it all), but he had a cognition of her fiance, so...

You make a fair point about Haru. She never does mourn him at any point in the game, really.

I'm going to go way too meta-narrative here: the cast of Persona 5 seemed to solidly believe that how a person acted was strongly influenced by the forces around them, ergo if Akechi could decide put his powers towards something just, he could atone and be forgiven. This stands in contrast to the beliefs of Yaldabaoth, who is effectively a false Thor. /inceptionhorn

Delthazar wrote:In retrospect they probably could've dropped a few more red herrings to better distract from Akechi.

I think the biggest red herring for me is that the MC in Persona 3 and 4 were the only wild cards in their respective games. If Akechi's persona was Robin Hood he obviously couldn't be the black masked dude, because hurrr only the MC is special.

I believe Haru actually does say something along the lines of "I can't forgive you, but that doesn't mean I'm not willing to work with you to stop Shido, then we can sort out our own group dynamic shit".

I think Haru doesn't so much not mourn her father as she is quickly overwhelmed by her new duties, the Phantom Thieves stuff, et cetera.

Hmm, yeah, that's fair. They probably just need one or two more lines in a quieter moment to sell that a little more. Kinda like the little bonding scene Ann and Makoto have together earlier in the game. Haru never quite gets one of those, unless it's all hidden away in her s-link.

'course this game is so damn long I've already forgotten a ton of it since, uh, April. I think my NG+ run stalled out somewhere around the Hawaii trip.

e: btw, did y'all check out the Maid & Butler and Christmas costume packs? Those were added pretty damn recently I think. I'm not too keen on the Maid & Butler stuff, but some of the Christmas costumes are excellent, especially Makoto, Futaba, and Ryuji.

Delthazar wrote:Kinda like the little bonding scene Ann and Makoto have together earlier in the game. Haru never quite gets one of those, unless it's all hidden away in her s-link.

Her social link is MC-centric and revolves around her hobbies, and then her dealings with the company. Unfortunately, there's no tie-ins with other party members. You're right, she needs more one-on-one moments with them. Aside from Morgana pre-recruitment, I can't recall any.

Delthazar wrote:'course this game is so damn long I've already forgotten a ton of it since, uh, April. I think my NG+ run stalled out somewhere around the Hawaii trip.

I stalled mine out at the very end due to trophy hunting. While there's some I know I won't be able to get (one of the video games is too hard, fishing is impossible for me, and I can't seem to hit the home run), I did want to complete the compendium as that counts for 2 related trophies, I believe. What's holding me back is one of the treasure demons isn't spawning for me in Mementos despite using items to help facilitate that. I got bored trying to chase it down.

Delthazar wrote:e: btw, did y'all check out the Maid & Butler and Christmas costume packs? Those were added pretty damn recently I think. I'm not too keen on the Maid & Butler stuff, but some of the Christmas costumes are excellent, especially Makoto, Futaba, and Ryuji.

Didn't know they were still releasing costume DLC. I'm assuming neither set is free...